Michurinsk

Michurinsk (mēch`rĭnsk), city (1989 pop. 109,000), central European Russia. It is a railway junction and has locomotive and automobile repair works, and varied manufactures. Founded in 1636, it was known as Kozlov until 1932, when it was renamed in honor of the 19th-century Russian scientist Michurin, who founded a horticultural institute in the city.

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Michurinsk 

(Kozlov until 1932), a city in Tambov Oblast, RSFSR. Renamed after I. V. Michurin. Located on the right bank of the Lesnoi Voronezh River (Don River basin), it is a railroad junction for lines to Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, and Tambov. Population, 98,000 (1973; 72,000 in 1939, 81,000 in 1959).

Michurinsk was founded in 1636 near the Kozlov Troitskii Monastery as a fortified post for the defense of Riazan’ from raids by Crimean Tatars. In 1708, Kozlov became part of Azov guberniia and in 1719 of Tambov provintsiia of Azov guberniia; in 1779 it became the chief town of a district in the Tambov namestnichestvo (vicegerency). Trade was well developed in the city (crystal, tawed goods, salt, fish), and there were handicraft industries and the transport of mercantile goods, particularly to Moscow. During the prewar five year plans it was transformed into an industrial city.

Modern Michurinsk ranks second among the oblast’s cities in industry and culture (after Tambov). Industry includes a piston ring plant (producing up to 80 percent of all the piston rings in the USSR), locomotive and automobile repair plants, an automatic pump plant, a machine tool repair plant, a canning combine, a meat packing plant, a clothing factory, and a weaving mill, as well as building materials production. The city has fruit and vegetable and pedagogical institutes; evening mechanical, food industry, and technological technicums; a sovkhoz technicum; and a medical school. Michurinsk is a scientific horticultural center for all of the Soviet Union. The I. V. Michurin Central Genetic Laboratory and the I. V. Michurin Fruit-growing Research Institute are located there. Michurinsk has a drama theater, the I. V. Michurin Memorial Museum, and a museum of local lore. There are large fruit-tree nurseries and fruit-growing sovkhozes in the area.

WORKS

Michurinsk. [Voronezh, 1969.]